(A rabid monkey, hopped on caffeine will be standing by to take your call.)

Do you know what I hate?

Well besides clowns, women drivers, rednecks, Starbucks, Work, winter, political correctness, mommy bloggers, sitcoms, country music, New Year’s Resolutions, Birthday Parties, Nascar…

Okay, you get the point.

I hate it when I hear the ‘Media’ talk about blogging. They always reduce it to some form of amateur journalism. Sure there are some bloggers who have used the medium in just that way, and hats off to them. But I don’t think that does blogging justice. I think plenty of people blog just cause they feel like they have something to say.

They may not how to say it, or even what exactly it is. Yet they try to say it.

To me this is, at the same time, what is great and awful about blogging. Literally, millions of people who may or may not have any ability to write; who may or may not have any idea what they want to say; who may or may not have even thought out what it is they are trying to do.

Chances are that they ran across a blog or had a friend that blogs or read about it somewhere and thought to themselves, I can do this… I should do this!

It’s not hard to set one up, you can do it for free, there is nothing stopping you. And so they set them up. And then they blog, whatever that means.

The resultant blogs are as varied as the people who ‘write’ them. These blogs, more often than not, don’t provide some useful or necessary information. They aren’t well written and edited masterpieces. They just are. Occasionally, something wonderful comes out, but mostly it just is.

That’s where the Shitty Blogs Club comes in. We not only understand this, we embrace it. We think blogging is just like life: occasionally interesting, but mostly shitty. On any given day most blogs are shitty. They have more meme than content. They are just plain neglected. They are whiny. They have more style than content. They have more content than style. Some bloggers will get defensive. “My Blog is a big Deal! It is an award winning blog! It is going to a)bring in ad revenue b) land me a book deal c) bring me fame and fortune or d) some other unlikely goal.”

But many of us get it. We know that this blogging is just something we do for good, bad or (most likely) ugly.

This club is for those who get it.

If you join this club, I personally promise that it will never help you make a dime, it will not increase your traffic or SEO, it will never get you noticed by editors, publishers or the Media.

There is only one reason to join this club. It’s to make a stand and say to the so-called blogosphere: I have a blog and it is mostly shitty, and I am proud of it.

This club has been, erm, dormant for a while. It’s time to kick some life back into it. Existing members: recruit new members! You surely know some bloggers who ‘get it,’ send them here! Potential new members: Read the FAQ and then read this. If you still want to join, go here.

Once you are a member, you can enjoy then benefits of Membership: Not listening to Shitty Blog Radio; not posting in the forum; not buying Shitty Blog stuff; and not participating in games and contests.

Be Proud. Be Shitty!

I have issues.

I know, talk about stating the obvious. It’s what I do, I look around, see what I see and then blurt it out as though no one else can see it.

Amongst the many issues is this one: I can’t stand to be alone. Now add this one: I hate people. Man am I fucked.

It is this juxtaposition of issues that drove me to look for social interaction on the Internet in the first place. This goes back to the early 90’s. I discovered usenet. What a great idea, I thought. People from all over can ‘gather’ to discuss common interests. The first post I made (probably in some Pink Floyd.alt.alt.dumb kind of thread) was flamed by some stupid know-it-all, stoner loser. I guess my post didn’t measure up to his expectations.

The same pattern followed for Bulletin Boards, Chat Rooms, and just about everything on Internet. Even the porn was disappointing.

I always think the Internet will be the perfect answer to this the need people/hate people thing. You’d think that on the web, without the constraints of class, economy and geography, that you’d be able to find a group of people that ‘fit in’ with.

As a rule, I’ve failed miserable in that regard.

Every time I think that I’ve found something that will allow me to interact with other people, it turns out that those people are as narrow minded, boring and general stupid (or more so) than the people I have to deal with in the real world.

And any of you that want to tell me that I could make it work if I wanted to are simply missing the point. Of course I could behave like a complete moron and fit in with the rest of them, but that’s not what I’m looking for at all.

So I sit here and work on my Shitty Blog Sites and make believe that if I control the rules that it will give me what I want. But we all know better.

So despite my social networking, my email contacts, IM contacts, twitter friends and blog buddies when I am feeling alone and want some one to talk… there’s nobody there.

Damn I love the Internet.

Be Proud. Be Shitty!